Wasson!

I am sure I had some great idea of what to write about while at work today... Maybe not... Anyway it has vanished now...

This month's herb / spice is to be tamarind paste and as yet I have no idea what to do with it. Asfotedia wasn't my most favourite and is alright used in small quantities with other flavourings. I love Black onion seed and it often finds it way into dishes. Fenugreek is fine, if you want things to taste like curry powder. So any ideas about tamarind would be gratefully received...

I failed to do anything for charity last month so I have a month to make up. Pirate FM, a Cornish radio station, is currently supporting the Precious Lives Appeal. In Cornwall we often suffer in terms of facilities. Specialist things often tend to be placed in Devon and this can mean a very long journey. One example of this is children's hospices and the Precious Lives Appeal is raising money for a hospice in Cornwall, especially for those children who can't travel so far.

The radio station has selected three contestants who are having a mad fund raising time in order to try and win a holiday and do the best they can for the charity. One person is having an appeal for pants (knickers or whatever you might call them) which will be hung on a giant washing line across the Tamar Bridge (big bridge between Cornwall and Devon). I might buy a cheap pair and decorate them and send them with my donation - maybe £10 because I know I am never, ever going to do the fruit thing on my list...

I might also do another parcel for a service person, maybe in Iraq this time. I enjoyed doing this last time and it will help me catch up!

Yesterday in my wanderings I missed out on a visit to a holy well (St Levan) and a hillfort (Maen Castle). Maybe I should take my map with me so that I can tell where things are when I end up in places.

I started drawing spirals yesterday. I did a single and a double spiral and they are both pretty simple once you know how. I need to start having a go at constructing more complicated spirals now in order to develop them into beautiful full on celtic lovelinesses.

I also discovered that using silk painting techniques on cotton isn't so good. I used gutta on one side but it doesn't soak through the fabric enough to make a barrier. I am going to try putting gutta on both sides of the cotton to see if that works.

I have also accepted that some of my ideas for blog candy are just not practical. I can draw abstract and geometrical things but trying to draw a tree spirit with willow leaves for hair is beyond my current skills. I can see what I want in my head but i can't get it onto paper.... So I am going to stick with what I can do, for now....

I have already started thinking of things for my next list of 101 things. I have a little word file and as I think of things they go on the list. So hopefully next time there will be no dramatic scrabbling for ideas... I like this whole list thing but I did give myself a lot of big projects and things to learn....

F has returned from his work weekend away, yay! So nice to have him back, it just doesn't seem natural not seeing him. I don't much like being on my own really. Just as well I have Little Dog for company....

I guess my only problem with my 101 things list, is my own ambitiousness. I am not getting to tick many things off. Lots of things won't be ticked off until near the end.... This is frustrating....

Charity

It is amazing what you can buy for £10! Ok so you can't feed yourself for a week on this but you can sure buy a nice variety of things to perk up yours or someone else's life... The following items are about to be packed up and sent to a British service woman in Afghanistan:

Pot of black pepper
3 packs of yogurt covered fruit flakes (raspberry, strawberry and blackcurrant)
handy wordsearch book
Mega pack of strawberry sugarfree gum
Lipbalm
bag of sea salt and black pepper cashew nuts
box of 100 spearmint tic tacs
Kiddies sweets (3 bags teeth and lips, strawberry flavour lances and fizzy cola lances)
seven hot chocolate sachets of various types (you can#t send chocolate cos it melts so this is the next best thing!)
Tube of effervescent Vitamin C and Zinc tablets - apparently they help make water taste nicer...

I also have a large bag of tea light candles and if I have room in my box I may put a couple of those in too...

It really helps to go in looking for bargains - if you have no preset ideas of what you are going to buy or which brands to buy. Liquids and meltables are a bad idea. I would like to have gotten some nice toiletries as a treat but i can't imagine they have spare water for baths and solid nice things of other varieties aren't so cheap....

I have in my head kind of set myself a little challenge with the whole charity thing of not buying things off a charity that I don't need, not just giving money and trying to do something different each month, if I can possibly find that many different things to do... I may stretch it to sponsoring a child...

Today I found this charity called Algerian Action who take all sorts of things out to Algeria. They started by taking clothes, blankets and blanket squares and toys for children. They are not fussy about whether you crochet, sew or knit or the standard of your skills. Something even I can contribute to!

Everybody is probably aware of these needs and projects that meet them but the charity has a new project which made me quite sad and was something I had never ever thought of. It seems many women can not afford disposable sanitary towels and are often forced to use black plastic from refuse sacks. A new project has been set up to collect washable pads for these women. How many people would think to try and meet such a basic need? How many charities have missed this because we don't like to think or talk about 'women's issues'?

I can sew in straightish lines. I have a sewing machine I need to learn how to use but I am most comfortable with basic hand sewing. I don't think straight lines matter when making sanitary pads. If I can't use my machine to knock a few together then it is a sad thing! I think I shall try and contribute a few different things to this project over the remainder of my 1001 days.

First though I like the idea of making a babies blanket. I have some bright pieces of fleecy material I am doing nothing with and I am sure i could manage to turn them into a patchwork blanket (probably by hand). I also have an item on my list to make a cuddly toy and another to learn to crochet... I know one, at least, of my local charity shops has a tub of donated wool, if I learn to crochet I can practice making some nice and garish blanket squares at pretty low cost.

If anybody has any other ideas of things that would meet my ideas of things I can do for other months for my charity challenge, I would be grateful...

Charity (Word Wednesday)

This is something I have been thinking about recently. I made one of the things on my 101 things to do list, to 'donate something to charity each month'. What I didn't say is I don't want to give money. I don't mind spending money but... I am not saying I shall not give money at some point but....

So why don't I want to give money? It feels something like giving a beggar cash, not knowing if it will be spent on alcohol or drugs. There is something much more satisfying about the idea of giving or doing something. These things have added value.

I remember when I lived in the City, there was a girl. I never knew her or spoke to her but synchronicity took me across her path several times. The first few times I saw her, she was begging outside a bank. She was in a bad way and obviously was abusing something. These thoughts were confirmed as one time I saw her she was giggling to herself and generally on another planet. She lost weight.

One day I was walking to work. With no car, it was simpler to walk rather than go into the city then out again, even though I did have to walk through some bad areas. But then, to be fair, I lived and worked in bad areas and the places inbetween weren't much different. There was a house on a corner that was unkempt and given some of the people I saw going in and out of it, I had suspicions that it was a rather unpleasant house....

One day I saw a man and a woman arguing. The man was pulling the begging girl from the house. He looked healthy and well as did the woman he was arguing with but the begging girl was so thin she could have been a skeleton. She had no life or will and would have gone anywhere anyone wanted to take her without argument. I got the distinct impression that the man was trying to take the begging girl away from there, to help her, but the woman, probably his girlfriend was against the idea. The man was cross and determined and I walked on by.

The next time I saw the girl she was begging again. This time, however, she looked well and happy and there was hope in the eyes that had previously seemed to hold no life at all. She was with a young man who had the same look. They were young and in love. They were trying, badly to busk and they had a sign behind them saying 'leaving for London, please help with the fare'. This was the last time I saw her and the first time I gave her money.

I don't know why synchronicity took me past her as it did. How I managed to be there at several dreadful points in her life, but I was. But to give her money before I saw her being taken from that house would not have been charity. It would have been death money. She would have used it to carry on killing herself, as she undoubtably was. We never exchanged a word and I was an unseen observer of her life but yet all these years later, I still remember her well.

So charity. If I give, I want to know exactly where and how it will be used. If I can add value to it by extra effort or thought then I would much rather do that. Last month was easy - the local radio station had an appeal on for Easter Eggs to deliver to children in hospitals and hospices. This month however there has been no easy appeal.

One thing keeps coming to my mind though and that is to send an anonymous package to a member of the armed forces serving abroad. I don't agree with war but I know that we are human and I can not see any way of stopping the world from making war. Those men and women who fight do so because they believe it will help their home country and with peace keeping (or restoring) a large part, because they believe they can help.

So what is charity? According to the dictionary it is:

• Provision of help or relief to the poor
• Something given to help the needy
• benevolence or generosity towards others or humanity
• Indulgence or forebearance in judging others
• An organisation or institution established to help the needy

So no, I don't have to agree with war, but by sending something to a member of the Armed Forces serving in difficult circumstances, it is charity on several levels. I am not judging, I am being generous, they certainly are needy and in many ways they are poor. I don't think charity should always be an easy or comfortable thing. Sending money off by direct debit feels somehow soul-less.

I found an organisation called Surprise Supplies and they suggest sending goods of a maximum value of £10 to one of two addresses for either Iraq or Afghanistan. This is such a small thing to do, really. It seems that if you do this and take the package into the Post Office, the Royal Mail will not charge postage! I shall believe that when I see it....

For more information....

1, 2 or 3.

Viral Influences and other things that spread...

I think F has infected me... He had a mild case of man-flu last week which is lingering slightly. I have managed to avoid colds this winter despite his best efforts to give me the offspring of each of his chain of colds... I have had the occasional little baby sore throat, a sign maybe that my body has been trying to expel his nasty invaders.

Yesterday I felt lethargic and crawled back to bed at lunchtime for a snooze. Today I have a little baby sore throat lurking and I have been sneezing a little. I feel tired and very, very lethargic. No chance of me doing anything very much at all tonight.... Bed will call me home early I expect.

I think Little Dog is a little disappointed in the lack of outing but she doesn't overly like rain so I don't think she can hate me toooo much....

Today I bought some Easter Eggs for a local radio stations request for eggs to deliver to children in hospices this weekend. I just have to find out where to drop them off exactly. This will work nicely as my charity donation for this month.

I also got some fenugreek to be my first herb / spice. What I have learnt today is that the herbs and spices I use and am confident with form a large proportion of those on sale in my local supermarket. This challenge is going to be a little more complicated than expected! I shall dig out my book on herbs and see what I can figure out....

I also have set up my postcross account and have my first address to send a postcard to! This one is off waves breaking on rocks and will be going to Germany. I can see that this would be quite addictive.... I also finally managed to think of a secret for my post secret card. This is an odd thing because sending a postcard means everyone who handles the card on it's travels can read it. I imagine it can be quite cathartic. My secret is a funny thing. I am awful at keeping secrets. F knows everything about me really, worsd fall out of my mouth. There are however certain parts of my past that, although he knows about them, he doesn't want to explore too deeply and I respect this. My secret is something I could tell him but I don't think he would want to know, although I could tell him at sometime in the future...